Last Words chapter 37 (Patreon)

We got back through the door easily enough. I expected campus to be busy, but after meeting up with everyone, we made it through without incident, and gathered back at camp inside the protective circle on the other side of the red door. Sonia, Denny, and Aurelia were waiting for us, and they all seemed relieved to have us back.

They weren’t expecting my cousin and Jacob, nor Alice, but they rolled with the new additions. Everyone here was a professional and it would more than a little recruitment trip to throw them off their games.

I let everyone wander around the camp, with a warning about not going out of the circle, and was about to check in with Ron about our next move when something caught my eye. I blinked in confusion as I saw Deke standing at the edge of the circle, hand extended, not far enough to break the plane but far enough to make it clear he yearned to reach out. His expression looked…hungry. But also sad.

“Deke?” I asked him quietly as I stepped up beside him. “You ok?”

His eyes tracked the leaves of nearby plants, of trees and animals I wasn’t sure I could even see. “It’s breathtaking,” he intoned in a solemn voice I’d never heard from him before. “It’s…transcendant. There’s so much I can see. So many new things to explore.” His eyes misted slightly. “It’s beautiful. Thank you, Gus. Thank you so much.”

“Whoa, it’s cool,” I said slowly, holding up my hands. “Just needed some help. I appreciate the assist. Are you sure you’re ok? You don’t seem like yourself.”

Deke laughed, the sound jagged and almost broken in a way that worried me. “Myself? Who exactly is that? No offense, Gus, but do you think someone like me gets scouted by a top tier botanical college for no reason?”

Saying that, I was about to answer, but I paused. I had a memory, one that I had brushed aside, of the first time I’d met Deke. We’d been young, and I’d been excited to spend time with my cousin. He’d been different then. Colder. Not mean, really, just…distant. By the next time I saw him in Boston, he was his current jovial babbling self. I frowned. “What’s up, man?”

“This is your brain on drugs,” he quipped lightly. “Happy. Peaceful. I’ve always loved plants, you see. I always enjoyed learning about them. I read all sorts of herbalism books I found at the store when I was a kid. Green witchcraft, folk journals, anything I could get my hands on. But the more I learned, the more I saw, and the harder it became to deal with it all. I consumed knowledge like a thirsty man consumes water in a desert, and I was making connections, collating data, in ways that made everything just…too much.

“But plants saved me again,” he said with a small smile. “I found that taking certain mixtures could relieve my overstimulation. Some of them were psychedelic or recreational, some were closer to medications you might find at a pharmacy. I just loved the chance to feel…peaceful.”

I frowned at him. “Based on the way you’re talking, you’re not on anything now. I’m guessing you came down before coming here. Why?”

“Because I had a reason,” he grinned, his eyes sharper and darker than I’d seen them before. “I’d already learned everything I cared to back home. I didn’t need to study, didn't need to consume knowledge. The world felt small and empty. But when you showed me that book…I woke up. Bestirred myself from stupor. I could feel it again. Purpose. Hunger.” He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “A whole new world to explore. It’s beautiful.”

He turned and wrapped his arms around me tightly. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you so much.”

I patted his back awkwardly. “It’s cool man,” I said in a consoling tone. “Happy to help. But I need your help too. Alchemy seems like it’s gonna be a big deal here. We NEED an alchemist. Do you think you can figure it out?”

He stepped back, his wild smile still in place. “Try to stop me,” he said firmly. “That’s the whole reason I came. You get me the materials and I’ll become the greatest alchemist this world has ever seen. I refuse to believe a bunch of hedge doctors and tincture tinkerers like the ones who wrote that book can keep secrets from a phD level botanist. I’ll dissect their whole system and make it my bitch.”

“Love the confidence,” I said with a laugh. “As for materials I might have a lead on that. I’ll have to get into it. What do you ned to get started? Like what can I get you that’ll let you work out the basics before you need anything big and pricy?”

He hummed in consideration. “Get me some of those mana fruit,” he finally said. “Everything in this world seems to be related to mana. I want to study it in its most basic form. If nothing else I might be able to develop a better delivery system than just eating them. I have a few ideas of how to get it into the system more efficiently, but I need to run some tests. I also need you to recreate my equipment from my lab. And a place to work.” He glanced over at the shed. “I could make do with that if need be.”

I made a mental list of expenses in my had, trying to keep track. The fruit wasn’t too bad, the equipment WOULD be. I was already wincing at how much I’d need to spend. I was lucky I’d seen his home lab, which meant I could buy anything in there. Even if I didn’t know what the hell most of it did I could still buy it if I could afford it.

After I mentioned this, he nodded. “The mass spec I have at home is a relatively low end benchtop version. Those are cheaper, but still run into the tens of thousands. It’s going to cost you to outfit me. You sure you’re willing to invest?”

“Of course,” I told him bluntly. “I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think you could help. And knowing how you’re feeling about this whole thing now…well, I’m looking forward to what you come up with even more. I’ll keep an eye out for more materials and more alchemy books for you, just do what you need to do.”

He chuckled to himself. “I always do,” he said with a macabre smile. “Just make sure you can keep up with my research.”

It was a sign of how distracted I was that I didn’t notice the blinking in the corner of my vision until just then. I checked the notification. It was a simple event confirmation. Level ten. My contract skill hit level ten, and I had officially unlocked my first perk.

Speaker - Tin Rank. Verbosity: 25/100

Skills: 

Purchase- Level 7: Pay a commensurate amount of money for things of value.

Sell- Level 8: Exchange goods for currency.

Contract- Level 10: Form an agreement with another party, involving compensation for a specific task.

Perks: 

Tier 1 Contract perk- Empathic read: Discern the basic emotions and intentions of the target of a negotiation.

Unaffiliated Skills: Initial Mana Body- Level 9: A body imbued with a touch of mana, slightly increased strength, speed, and endurance. Natural mana generation.

Mana: .09/.09

I blinked. That was useful. It wasn’t gamechanging, but based on my conversation with Damon early perks were supposed to be pretty tame. They were easy to get starting out, but the gap became harder to bridge the further you went. Ten, twenty five, fifty, one hundred, two hundred fifty. That was part of why most people tried not to gain too many skills. Having a hundred tier one perks wasn’t as good as having five tier two.

Not to mention I was also pretty sure better skills gave better perks. I had no idea if having fewer skills made them better quality or if I had just lucked out in terms of leveling speed by having a semi-limited word, but I suspected having fewer skills to develop perks for was going to help me in more ways than just making those perks easier to acquire.

I was also pretty excited I had made it up to twenty five Verbosity. I was officially a quarter of the way to Iron rank. Deke was staring at me. “Huh?” I asked him, my eyes focusing. “Sorry, I missed that, what’s up?”

He rolled his eyes. “Guessing something interesting just happened?” I nodded slowly, letting my new sense roll over him. Empathy. It was a very faint perception, but I really could feel what he felt. Excitement. Wariness. Exhaustion.

“I’ll tell you about it later,” I chuckled. “At the moment, I need a bit of help. I’m supposed to be collecting a special plant for the owner of the tavern I work at. I could use your help figuring out where the hell it is.” The copy of the alchemy book I had bought to lend to Deke was in english, a tricky use of my powers that I’d come up with on the fly. Since I owned the book and knew the language it was within my capabilities, and it didn’t cost much (only a hundred or so) since I was just buying a copy of what I already had.

It had been worth the effort though, because Deke had been able to read and comprehend the book in alchemy, and that meant he would be in the best position to help me find the plant that I was supposed to stock up on. Esther needed a bunch of that Erumpent spice for her stew, and I had a feeling it wasn’t all exactly the same quality.

I’d been planning to just go hunting for it until I found some, but having an expert give me directions (especially with a drone to do the searching for him) would save me a ton of time.

When I described the plant, he nodded slowly, humming with interest. “Yeah, I could help with that. You said you have a drone I could use to look for it? And that it grows at the edge of the forest?”

“It does,” I agreed. “Though I don’t know where else it grows. I would be careful though, using the drone near the wood’s edge. The monkeys don’t love them, and while you can usually avoid their projectiles by dodging behind trees if you get spotted, outside the tree cover it might be tough to survive the onslaught.”

He grinned at that. “I like a challenge. I’ll take care of it, just give me a few minutes to find what you need.” He wandered off to find the drone, excited to explore.

I couldn’t blame him, either. This world was so…vital. Alive. It was an amazing place to be. Not just because of the mana and the amazing animals, but just because of the adventure. Speaking of mana, my eyes fell to my mana body skill. 

Level nine. Once I hit ten I’d get my tier one mana body perk. It was, as far as I could tell, a unique benefit of being a speaker. Mana bodies existed here for tons of people, but the speaker system’s perks were a benefit only we got. I could see why speakers were so feared. I didn’t know what perk I might get for a skill like mana body, but if it was half as useful to my use of mana as my contract perk was to making contracts I had a feeling it would be terrifying. And that was just tier one.

Pushing down the thought, I turned back to find the rest of my friends. While Deke was searching, I’d go check in with everyone on the local front. Once that was done, it was off to harvest plants and then back to work. I just hoped I could find enough of that spice.